Mood boards

In the Design School I talk about the benefits of creating a mood board. Too designer ish I here you cry, who has the time? Yes its a tad designer ish but find time I say, get up early, go to bed late, do it on the weekend, or on the tube, bus, helicopter (?) on the way to work! The reason, if you are all at sea at which direction you want your interior to take, or in a conundrum with colour, lighting or anything else it totally focuses the mind. The great thing about mood boarding a room is that at this stage you can be as brave and off radar as you possibly dare – its all up for grabs nothing is implemented yet, its just you, head honcho designer referencing a load of images you love and collating them to find some sort of theme. You don’t need to stick them on foam core or even print them off you can create boards on your computer  by referencing on line mags, blogs, pinterest all good sources for  images.

These guys have created a sweet little installation on their walls from a collection of images – fab for an office I have to say  and the great thing about it it focuses the mind. I mood board internally by that I mean when I’m working on a scheme images float into my brain of colours, textiles, furnishings I’ve done it so long that my mind is one big reference library of sources that I constantly pull on and rely on.

Lesson over, have a good Thursday

Re scheduling of Retail Masterclass

Hugest apologises to all those booked into the Retail Masterclass next Friday 5th October, regrettably due to some very unforseen circumstances I have to reschedule it. The good news it that we’re adding an additional day as they sold out pretty quickly so they are now running on the 2nd and the 9th of November as well as the 23rd (but that date has sold out).

More information here.

Please accept my apologises once again

 

Decorating made easy

Today I feel like a tortoise or at least taking as long as one getting my self out of the bedroom and into the studio, tired, tired, tired.  Even a coffee, single estate Brazilian from Lela’s with a dash of milk is not producing the result I had hoped for – ENERGY.

Hey ho lets talk about creating extraordinary rooms, that might energise me a tad you never know. If you want the kind of interiors that are memorable, that make people linger longer, gasp, grab a camera and say out loud WOW then you’ve got to take a few risks. Seriously, as hard as it might seem you’ll only get the results I’m talking about if you push a few boundaries, step out of you’re comfort level and take the plunge. I’m not talking about wallpapering your living room in leopard wallpaper, or installing great big neon lights all over the wall; I’m talking about subtle little changes that will set your room apart. I talk about it often having a small percentage of items in a space that push it. Could be through  shape, colour, texture, could be because they make you smile, could because they add add an element of quirk it really doesn’t  matter how you do it. Just do it!

Below all three images (by Jake Fitzjones) push it through colour.

Who would stick a lemon yellow chair in a room, I would its one of the most neglected of hues when it comes to interiors and it lifts lifts lifts any space.

Or accessorize with heaps of patterned brightly hued textiles, I totally would see how it energizes the space.

Finally it can even be as simple as opting for some jaw on the floor burnt orange blooms, that mesmerize you with their amazing hue and totally enliven this sideboard.

Who said decorating was tough, its easy peasy no?

 

 

Website temporarily down

Our website should any of you be having problems with it is down, one thousand apologises we are doing everything we can to fix it asap.

Some of us couldn’t care less of course,  romping all over the park and then snoozing on the bed is the order of the day!

Circle Up

In two weeks time or there abouts we head to Australia to launch the Design School in Melbourne and Sydney which is incredibly exciting. Not quite so exciting is the fact that I am almost longer on the plane than on the ground but that is a result of a schedule that is a little bonkers and there is not much I can do about that. Never mind (stop with the grumbling) I say. Something I talk about quite a bit in class is the introduction of circular pieces to rooms. All rooms need circles or curves to break up the boxiness of a space – the more circles you add the more interesting a room becomes.

I’m talking lamps, chairs, tables, and vases anything really. You don’t have to over do it despite what I said above, a few pieces are enough to change the dynamic and break up the formality of the space. I tend to opt for little occasional tables and vases more than anything else but as I mentioned it’s entirely up to you.

 

This is what I’m talking about  a few pieces, curvaceous in form loosen things up a tad.

Dawn is just beginning to break, its been raining pretty heavily so I am thinking a run is in order.  I feel like running full pelt with the rain lashing down, music pounding in my ear and the smell of the earth in the air. Oh and I have a confession to  make I like the rain, I like the feel of rain on my skin, especially when running. On the last day in Paris a few weeks back it poured  all day,  my parents who were in the city with us and I ended up buying poncho type rain macs in Monmarte with  I love Paris scrawled  on the back. Mine is lemon yellow long to the floor (and so touristy) and you know what I kind of love it. Its the kind of mac you could wear your pj’s under and no one would know. Now all I need is a huge mountain, the wind blowing a gale and a long trudge up to the top in my mac, heavenly but listen I’m digressing have a great Tuesday!

 

 

 

Real Time Decorating

Morning, I have to talk quietly as the whole house is sleeping, and for once not even aware I am and up and about, even Mung’s which is incredibly unusual. Snug as a bug in a bed is he, and looking very adorable. Feels a bit like Christmas morning when you get up early to put the bird in the oven, and tiptoe around prepping for the day, wrapping presents not wanting to wake a soul.

A very big thank you to all of those who attended the master classes this past weekend it was a fabulous few days, I meet some great people, so thank you again guys for making it all so enjoyable.

Yesterday it rained all day, I know this is an odd thing to say but I kind of loved it, the light was so low and so soft, I lit zillions of candles, turned on every light, made a big fire, slow roasted some pork, baked an apple crumble, and snuggled into Nigel Slater’s new book Kitchen Diaries 2. I am in love with Nigel, his food, the way he writes, his garden love love love him. In his intro he talks about cooking every dish as if its your last, giving it as much attention as you possibly can which made me think the very same goes for decorating. I get asked alot about whether my kind of style hinders houses when they are put on the market to sell, since I guess its not a conventional beige haze of blandness that many people buy into.  I don’t know is my answer I don’t intend to sell this house, but even if I were to sell in a year or so it wouldn’t stop me from decorating it now, in real time exactly the way I want to. I couldn’t live in a house that was blandly decorated just because in a year or three of 20 I might sell it. I decorate for now, for today this morning, this evening, who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. So my advice, decorate for now, live in a home that you love now that you want to come home to, that you think about when you are out and about in town because its pulling at your heart strings, wanting you to return. Forget 2 year plans; 5 year plans and live in a space that makes you happy.

Like this home from the September issue from Vogue Living, I’ve yet to see the issue but just looking at this spread you can tell that whoever lives here loves their home.  Its a home you want to come back to, filled with stuff that tantalises – its so easy to create spaces that raise the pulse all you need to do is decorate from the heart for now, today, this week, this month and forget next year, or the year after that. Real time decorating I’m gonna call it! Have a lovely Monday, busy one for me, catching up with a load of stuff I didn’t get round to on the weekend.

New store pics

Morning, feeling a little livelier today after the longest sleep ever, and anyways the store looks amazing, transforming itself into an ultra cool hangout. AND the revamp is still not finished, we still have to divide up the back with the coolest velvet wallpaper on earth, skim the floor with rugs, suspend a few more super cool chandeliers, install an art wall and scatter the floor with our dog lights – which (I can barely believe I am saying this) will be stock items in the next few weeks so can actually go from having terrible lead times to being brought off the floor! In the retail class which I believe is completely sold out I’ll be yabbering all about wholesaling, one of the most challenging, difficult things to get into, but that is for then and this is now.

Some pics of my store:

My new tableware only went in yesterday and its flying out which is amazing. I wanted to design a range that you wouldn’t have to buy the whole set of (not good with sets) so baguette plates, bowls for soups, stews, etc., plates which double duty as platters that sort of thing, which look good with whatever you have. Maud and Mung’s also eat off them (one of their favourite dishes from Lily’s Kitchen fish pie, actually looks rather tempting!   Btw its all square – square being the new round of course and all hand thrown, hand glazed, yadda, yadda, yadda. Forgive me, I am excited, especially seeing it on mass for the first time in the store it kind of takes your breath away.

The pearly king and queen zebra is by the artist Donya Coward who uses vintage textiles to make the most amazing animals from zebras to dog heads (on my Christmas list wish list a commission to Donya to make heads of Mungs and Maud). Talking of which we are collaborating with Donya, she is holding a weekend workshop in my pad so if you fancy creating an artwork of your pet over a weekend in October using vintage textiles and lace contact the store for details oh and there are examples of the kind of pictures you can create in the store, they are AMAZING and the perfect gift I might add.

Flowers, flowers, flowers, Gem my sister has done the most amazing job – the flowers in the store right now are the jaw on the floor variety, AMAZING – people are literally coming in and smelling them so real they look!

Leather chairs are piled with heaps of merino wool softly woven cushions, mirrors are super sized and lights dot the store casting beautiful little pools of yellow light.

Right then I have to get on,  the Design School opens its doors this weekend so we will be talking about how to create your dream home (easy peasy) you can do it in 24 hours I reckon, will be breaking some rules, wondering around the house and finishing up with some decorating ideas to give you more bang for you buck!

The house is in the biggest mess, Mung’s decided to bring in the whole garden yesterday twigs, sticks, leaves and eat them and play with them all over the floor, being so tired I was like ‘go for it’, now however, thinking that wasn’t one of my better ideas! Hey ho have a lovely weekend

Last flash sale of the year

Last flash sale this year until January 2013, so we have  three super cool items up for grabs and greatly reduced:

Bel Amie is 30% off reduced from £635 to £444.50

Rodolphe is 50% off he is damaged and reduced to £317.50

And finally our bird chandelier reduced by 50% from £1995 to £997.50\

Only one of each remaining so its a first come first serve basis – to bag email: contact@atelierbypost.com tel: 0207 354 8181

Best of luck xx

Revamps, tiredness and flash sale news

We didn’t finish the revamp of the store yesterday, 13 hours after we began still not complete so its another early one today to get it all sorted so we are open and ready for 10.30. Also I’ll be moving some long term pieces out of the store as the new stock is so amazing so will be flash saling them, probably later today I’ll keep you posted, on the blog, facebook and twitter.  The stoop sale I think will be a week on Saturday but again thats not quite set in stone yet but will keep you posted, juggling schedules trying to fit it all in, oh and I will take some pics of the store to show you how its all looking – pretty darn cool if I say so myself.

So this morning I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind if I skipped a post, not just because of the earliness of the hour but because I’m feeling pretty darn shattered and sitting here at 4.15am I can for once think of nothing to say (other than please can I go back to bed). Which is a no, I can’t!

Back later with flash sale news and again please forgive the lack of post, am sure after a few coffees energy will start returning to my weary self.

How not to decorate

4.15 am, have exactly 15 mins to write this post and then I am out the door back to the store for another day of install. If anyone is thinking of coming to the store today can I try to put you off, of course we will open the door but it will be utterly chaotic – wallpaper being hung, more painting under way and 3 truck loads of products to unwrap and style. Mon Dieu!

Right then as I have to be out of here in a flash lets get to the point pronto. I get asked alot about how to layer or style tables, mantles, walls, shelves the whole shebang and although there is some skill involved (I’m not dumbing it down here) it really is pretty easy once you start. By the way in the Christmas master classes (happening in November and December) we are planning on a mostly practical day where you guys get to see how to style everything I’ve just mentioned and even have a go of doing it yourself – but I’m digressing I will yabber about that another time.
NUMBER ONE RULE – buy stuff that you love do that and you will find the whole process of layering much easier. Number Two restrict the colour palette do that and you find you can almost layer anything. You’ll always want to play around with the height – ie paintings on a wall all the same size are a little dull, or objects on a mantle all the same height are a big yawn so variety of scale is pretty key. As the saying goes variety is the spice of life.

Now I don’t often do this but the image below is for me a good example of how not to decorate – even though I adore the colour palette and even though I adore adore the bedding its too boring. If you have nothing in a space (or very few things) your eye clocks it immediately , there is nothing to draw you in and excite you its like getting a plain dish of pasta at a restaurant -  you bite into it and its a little bland, there are no back flavours coming through to tanatalise (sorry for the cooking analogy watched Gordon last night).

Anyways here is the image, I have to fly – have a great Wednesday. It is Wednesday right? I actually have no idea!

PS there are spelling mistakes, oodles of them and bad punctuation throughout, haven’t got time to check I hate to say